According to the data of the RA Cadastre Committee, the cases of acquisition of property rights based on donations have increased in recent years. Accordingly, in 2020, 4017 donation transactions were registered in Yerevan, 8674 transactions in the regions, in 2021 – 5882 transactions in Yerevan, 12.060 in the regions, in 2022 – 7334 transactions in Yerevan, 15.765 in the regions.
The RA Deputy Minister of Justice Ara Mkrtchyan stated this presenting the draft law on Making Amendment and Addendum to the Law on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing for debate at the regular sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs in the first reading on September 4.
It is proposed to establish a duty for notaries and the RA Cadastre Committee to submit reports to the RA Central Bank, the authorized body, in cases provided by law.
According to Ara Mkrtchyan, the necessity for legal regulations is that the authorized body that approves and registers a donation transaction or the notaries must submit information on all donation transactions in their reports to the authorized body in accordance with the established procedure, in order to assess the risks as a result of their monitoring, as well as in individual cases for the purpose of preventing or detecting money laundering cases.
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It was noted that with the adoption of the draft, mechanisms will be created to manage risks regarding donation transactions, as a result, the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing will become more effective.
The Chair of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs Gevorg Papoyan, pointing out certain risks, suggested presenting more complete statistics during the period from the first to the second reading in order to find out the real reasons for the increase in the number of donations. He also urged the Central Bank, the authorized body, to monitor the behavior of commercial banks, because, according to Gevorg Papoyan, some banks are conducting a non-consumer policy by demanding brokerage fees for transactions. As a result, many prefer to make transactions through donations to avoid paying quite high brokerage fees, which contributes to increasing the number of donations.
Agreeing with the views of the Committee Chair, the Deputy Minister of Justice mentioned that an attempt is made to reduce all possible risks with the draft.
As a result of the debate, the Committee members endorsed the draft law.
National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia